November 5, 1963
Warner Bros.
Comedy, Drama, Romance
VHS
C+
This is never as much campy fun as it could be but if you're patient you may find it worthwhile. Mostly I watch it for the cast, particularly scene-stealing nine-year-old Billy Mumy as Boom Boom. The more recognizable "teenagers" in the cast include Jerry Van Dyke, 36, providing most of the comic relief, such as it is, and playing the banjo; Robert Conrad, 28, as the spoiled rich villain; Troy Donahue, 27, as the hero (and singer of the title tune); Connie Stevens, 25, as an 18-year-old pretending to be 21; Stefanie Powers, 21, as Bunny, who despite the name comes across as proto-feminist in one scene where she criticizes the double standard. (She also is, perhaps coincidentally, in a similar situation to Trudy Kockenlocker's in Miracle of Morgan's Creek, in that she works in a record shop and has a protective policeman father, although she decides not to give in to her own or Troy's "biological urges.")
The script is by Earl Hamner, Jr., later of Waltons fame, and among the un-Walton-like elements are
- A patio and swimming pool completely covered in laundry-detergent bubbles
- The policeman's wife trying to put tranquilizers in his orange juice
- Van Dyke trying to give Boom Boom a "milky Finn"
- A house-wrecking brawl
- A Nanette-Fabray-style makeover
- A gigantic Bugs Bunny doll
- A young man who hiccups when he thinks about sex
- A couple drag races
- A weekend that lasts a whole week (Spring Break/ Easter vacation)
- A folk band in a casino
Hamner obviously isn't responsible for the most unintentionally funny aspect of the film, the repeated shots of the cyclorama of the desert by the casino, with the studio lights clearly visible in several shots! (And it's not even like I have a big TV. It's really obvious.) Trying to make sense out of all this nonsense is Norman Taurog, who had been directing since the '20s (and apparently was one of the several directors of The Wizard of Oz), but in the '60s he started getting "teen movie" assignments, including a few for Elvis, so we'll be seeing his work again.
Jack Weston, who was the playwright/cabbie in Please Don't Eat the Daisies, plays the health-food fanatic basketball coach. Sam Harris has been in several of my movies, dating back to the '30s, the most recent before this being Auntie Mame; next would be Mary Poppins. Dorothy Abbott was in The Apartment. Roger Bacon was in Beach Party and would appear in Pajama Party. Red West would be in Girl Happy, Jim Shane and Louie Elias in John Goldfarb, Please Come Home!, and Jack Shea in I'll Take Sweden. Lesley-Marie Coburn, listed at IMDB as "Beatnick [sic] Babe," would do Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number!
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| "And I think that's the commissary over there." |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWB_tDhLLwU
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